as a current owner of the top load with agitator and dryer i can shed some light on this. I own this washer and corresponding dryer:
I went through 3 brands of defective top load washers with agitators, including Whirlpool’s so-called ‘professional’ model which turned out to just be a re-badged consumer model, and this was after coming from an LG washer dryer combo that I had to have repaired 7 times that eventually they just paid out on after more than a year of constant failures. I just looked up the receipt and bought 12/2019 for $850 each, so prices certainly have gone up, but so has everything else. At this point prices just are what they are. Chose this model because it was the newest top load non-digital at the time and even back then, these prices were more than just about anything on the market.
As for your positives I’ll answer them below:
i’ll answer these together because they’re related. There is a VERY good reason that you don’t read about speed queen’s online - people don’t go online to bitch about them. they work and don’t give you problems, period. god forbid they do, you can actually get it repaired. go read the reviews on maytag and samsung dishwashers to get an idea of what its like dealing with these garbage ass companies. you think ‘reliability’ is just something you write off until you’re stuck with no washer and dryer for weeks on end while waiting for parts and you have to start hauling your ass off to the laundromat to do laundry or pay through the nose for a wash and fold at the dry cleaners.
washing ratings are deceptive. you have to think about the mechanics of the washing machine you’re using. a front load spins the clothes over and over themselves like a barrel rolling down hill. this works on commercial units because they spin at like 1000 miles an hour and really do a good wash cycle. in consumer units they tend not to work this well. we had a top of the line LG front load and a top load as well. neither washed particularly well when it came to stains or spots because there was nothing for the laundry to “rub up against” to get the stain out. in the LG top load, all it does is has some plates in the bottom of the tub that purportedly move up and down a little bit and that is supposed to jostle the clothes enough to wash them. it doesn’t. that’s the primary reason we wanted an agitator in the new washer and this thing really does a great job. not once since we’ve had it have i had reason to doubt the cleanliness of the clothes after a load. that happened multiple times with the LG’s we had.
i was worried about this as well but its surprisingly large inside. i can get a full laundry basket full of clothes in there with no problem. only thing we really can’t wash any longer are comforters or pillows.
after you get treated like dogshit for long enough you tend to be more willing to pay for quality experiences.
i can’t answer this because i’ve never once been in someone’s house or a showroom and thought ‘that there sure is a sexy dryer…’
again this is debateable and i’m not sure that the efficiency test are all equal. i haven’t noticed any increase in electricity but we only run about 4 loads a week give or take. maybe someone else can comment. what’s the trade off, $3 a month in extra electricity maybe? i’m sure you can bridge that gap.
no front loader is going to be as reliable as a top loader just due to the possibility of mold and other front loader issues. another reason we wanted to get back to the top load models.
please god don’t do this. i mean, i’d rather you did this than a samsung or lg, but you’d be better off buying the speed queen in the long run. i will evangelize for this product until the day that i die after being treated like a dog in the street by samsung and lg.
oh, all their customer service agents are in the US as well and they usually can get service out to you in a matter of days. this might not seem like a big deal until you can’t get a whirlpool person out for 2 weeks or a samsung person out for 4 and then there are no parts to order once they diagnose the problem.